BEIJING – EOC Pharmaceutical Group, of Shanghai, completed a series C financing round, bagging $71 million to advance its lead programs EOC-103 and EOC-315 for breast and gastric cancers. The round was led by Hangzhou Tigermed Consulting Co. Ltd. and its affiliated funds, TF Capital and Yingke PE. Hanne Capital and Everest Venture Capital also participated in the round. In 2017, EOC raised $32 million in a series B round. All funding participants are China-based.

Tumor-agnostic therapy developer Black Diamond Therapeutics Inc. has completed an oversubscribed series C financing of $85 million. The Cambridge, Mass.-based company said proceeds will help it advance candidates targeting oncogenic driver mutations of the ErbB kinases in EGFR and HER2, starting with a combined phase I/II trial of its most advanced candidate next year.

HONG KONG – Rapt Therapeutics Inc., of San Francisco, and Seoul, South Korea-based Hanmi Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. entered a license agreement for Rapt’s FLX-475 in Asia. FLX-475 is an oral, small-molecule CCR4 antagonist for cancer treatment. 

Civetta Therapeutics LLC will take a $53 million series A to advance its platform and programs based on beta-propeller proteins that mediate protein-to-protein interactions. Those proteins can become involved in cancers, neurodegeneration and metabolic disorders, with oncology being the company’s initial focus.

DUBLIN – Imcheck Therapeutics SAS raised €48 million (US$53.2 million) in a series B financing round to move a pipeline of antibodies targeting gamma delta T cells into the clinic.

HONG KONG – Seoul, South Korea-based GI Innovation Inc. has licensed to Nanjing, Jiangsu-based Simcere Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. rights to its immunotherapy drug candidate, G1-101, a bispecific CD80/interleukin2 (IL-2) variant fusion protein.

SINGAPORE – While a lot of focus is placed on phase III trials and the subsequent approvals, panelists during the ESMO Asia Congress pointed to the importance of designing the right kind of phase I trials, from reaching global populations to using appropriate endpoints.

SINGAPORE – Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. presented new findings from its phase III ALTA-1L trial evaluating its Alunbrig (brigatinib) vs. crizotinib in adults with advanced anaplastic lymphoma kinase-positive (ALK+) non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) who had not received a prior ALK inhibitor, showing Alunbrig reduced the risk of disease progression or death by 76% after more than two years of follow-up.

SINGAPORE – Population-based cancer registries were a frequent focus of discussion at the ESMO Asia Congress.

HONG KONG – Lucence Diagnostics Pte Ltd., a genomic medicine company headquartered in Singapore, has secured $20 million in series A investment. The company is focused on inventing liquid biopsy tests for cancer screening and personalizing care.